Sullivan (TN) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Sullivan County, investors hold a significant 9,914 Single-Family Residential (SFR) properties, accounting for 17.8% of the total 55,600 SFRs in the market. This reveals a substantial investor presence within the local housing landscape.

The ownership structure is overwhelmingly dominated by individual investors rather than corporations. Individuals own 8,615 properties, representing 86.9% of the investor-owned portfolio, compared to 1,419 properties (14.3%) owned by companies.

This individual dominance is further reflected in the entity counts, where 10,388 individual landlords operate in the market, far outnumbering the 853 company landlords. This 12-to-1 ratio underscores that the local rental market is driven by small-scale operators, not large institutions.

Financing patterns show a strong preference for cash acquisitions among investors. A total of 7,797 properties were purchased with cash, more than triple the 2,117 properties that are currently financed. This suggests a well-capitalized investor base that can move quickly on acquisitions without relying on traditional lending.

The portfolio is heavily focused on rental income, with 9,702 of the 9,914 investor-owned properties identified as rented. This high concentration reinforces the primary business model of these owners as providers of rental housing.

A stark pricing advantage for investors emerged in Q1 2026, with landlords paying an average of $190,301 per property. This was a massive 39.0% less than the $311,791 paid by traditional homeowners, translating to a substantial cash discount of $121,490 on average.

This discount represents a significant widening of the price gap over the past year. In Q1 2025, landlords actually paid a slight 0.1% premium. The gap then settled at around 31% in mid-2025 before expanding to its current 39.0% level, indicating investors are becoming increasingly effective at securing below-market deals.

Comparing recent acquisitions to the pandemic-era boom, prices have shown modest growth. The average landlord acquisition price of $190,301 in Q1 2026 is up from the $176,275 average seen between 2020 and 2023, signaling sustained value appreciation in the market.

The quarterly trend shows a dramatic shift in purchasing power. After briefly paying a premium of $412 in Q1 2025 ($314,146 vs $313,734), investors re-established their pricing advantage, securing discounts of $101,336 in Q3 2025 and $121,490 in Q1 2026.

This consistent ability to acquire properties for significantly less than owner-occupiers is a core component of the real estate investing strategy in Sullivan County, allowing for healthier margins on rental yields or resale profits.

Investor activity was robust in Q4 2025, with landlords purchasing 155 of the 593 total SFRs sold in Sullivan County. This activity gives investors a 26.1% market share of all home purchases for the quarter, highlighting their significant role in market liquidity.

The market's new activity is overwhelmingly driven by small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) were responsible for 135 purchases, or 84.9% of all investor acquisitions. This demonstrates that the grassroots level of the market is the most active.

New entrants are a primary force, with 134 distinct entities making their first purchase to enter the single-property (Tier 01) landlord category. These new investors alone acquired 101 properties, representing 63.5% of all landlord buying activity for the quarter.

In stark contrast, institutional investors (1,000+ properties) had a minimal impact on the acquisitions market. They purchased only 6 properties, accounting for a mere 3.8% of the investor total, dispelling any notion of a corporate takeover of the local market.

The activity breakdown across tiers shows a clear pattern: purchasing power is concentrated at the smallest end of the investor spectrum. Tiers 01 through 04 combined for 135 purchases, while all larger tiers (05-09) combined for just 24 purchases.

The investor landscape in Sullivan County is unequivocally dominated by small-scale operators. Mom-and-pop landlords, defined as those owning 1 to 10 properties, collectively hold 95.0% of all investor-owned SFRs. This concentration illustrates a highly fragmented market composed of local individuals and families.

The single-property landlord tier is the bedrock of the market, alone accounting for 7,631 properties, or 74.6% of all investor holdings. This highlights the importance of first-time and small-scale investors to the local rental housing supply.

Conversely, the presence of institutional capital is virtually non-existent. Investors in the largest tier (1,000+ properties) own a combined total of only 13 properties, making up just 0.1% of the investor portfolio. This finding directly counters the common narrative of large corporations controlling the housing market.

Ownership progressively thins out as portfolio sizes increase. While small landlords (3-5 properties) hold a notable 975 properties (9.5%), ownership drops sharply in the mid-size tiers. For example, landlords with 51-100 properties own just 68 homes (0.7%).

This distribution of holdings, heavily skewed towards the smallest tiers, indicates a market with a high barrier to scaling for investors but a low barrier to entry for new participants.

While individual investors dominate the overall market, a clear crossover point emerges as portfolios grow. Companies become the majority property holders in the small-medium tier of 11-20 properties, where they own 144 homes (53.1%) compared to individuals' 127 homes (46.9%).

This trend intensifies in the next tier up (21-50 properties), where company ownership reaches its highest concentration at 79.5%. This suggests that as landlords scale their operations, they are more likely to adopt a formal corporate structure.

However, the smallest end of the market remains firmly in the hands of individuals. In the critical single-property tier, individuals own 7,162 properties (92.9%), dwarfing the 545 properties (7.1%) held by companies. This pattern holds for all tiers up to 10 properties.

The data reveals a clear divide in strategy: individual ownership is the standard for mom-and-pop investors, while a corporate structure becomes the preferred vehicle for mid-sized and larger portfolios. For example, in the 6-10 property tier, individuals still hold a majority at 55.9%, but the 44.1% company share signals the transition point is near.

This analysis of assessor data shows that understanding ownership structure requires looking beyond market-wide totals and examining the behavior at each specific portfolio size.

Investor activity in Sullivan County is highly concentrated in a few key zip codes. The 37620 area is the epicenter of investor ownership by volume, containing 2,662 investor-held SFR properties. It is followed closely by 37660 with 2,428 properties and 37664 with 1,627 properties.

However, the area with the highest raw count of investor properties is not the one with the highest market penetration. The 37665 zip code boasts the highest investor ownership rate at 25.4%, meaning one in every four SFRs there is investor-owned. This is followed by 37694 at 21.3% and 37620 at 20.3%.

This distinction between volume and rate is critical. While an area like 37620 has a large stock of rentals, a market like 37665 shows a deeper investor saturation relative to its size, which can have different implications for local housing dynamics and competition among buyers.

The top five regions by investor ownership rate all exceed 20%, except for the fifth, indicating specific sub-markets where investment is particularly prevalent. These areas are 37665 (25.4%), 37694 (21.3%), 37620 (20.3%), 37660 (19.4%), and 37664 (15.3%).

The data highlights that investor strategy is not uniform across the county. Some investors target areas with a large number of properties, while others focus on markets where they can achieve a higher percentage of ownership.

Landlords across Sullivan County are in a phase of aggressive portfolio expansion, consistently buying more properties than they sell. In Q1 2026, they demonstrated a strong net buyer position by purchasing 204 SFRs while only selling 66, a buy-to-sell ratio of 3.09 to 1.

This accumulation trend is not new; it reflects a consistent strategy over the past two years. In 2025, landlords were net buyers of 527 properties (792 buys vs. 265 sells), and in 2024, they were net buyers of 451 properties (726 buys vs. 275 sells).

Even the typically cautious institutional investors (1,000+ properties) are expanding their local footprint. In Q1 2026, this cohort was a net buyer, acquiring 7 properties and selling 4. While their scale is small, their direction is clear: they are accumulating assets in this market, not divesting.

The consistent net positive acquisition numbers signal strong investor confidence in the Sullivan County housing market. The high velocity of purchases relative to sales indicates that investors see long-term value and are actively increasing their holdings.

This sustained buying pressure from a large base of investors is a significant factor in the local market's supply-and-demand dynamics, contributing to market liquidity and competition for available housing stock.

In Q1 2026, landlords played a crucial role in market activity, with their 204 purchases accounting for 23.2% of the 881 total SFR transactions in Sullivan County. This highlights investors as a primary source of demand in the current market.

Transaction activity was, once again, dominated by mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties), who were responsible for 179 of the 204 investor transactions. In contrast, institutional investors made only 7 purchases.

A clear pricing advantage exists for larger, more experienced buyers. Institutional investors paid an average of $204,793 per property, which is 2.4% less than the $209,755 average paid by first-time, single-property landlords. This suggests that scale and experience can lead to better deal-making.

The source of properties varies significantly by investor tier. Institutional buyers relied heavily on inter-landlord transactions, with 42.9% of their Q1 purchases (3 of 7) coming from other landlords. This indicates a strategy of acquiring established rental properties.

Conversely, new landlords primarily buy from the open market. Only 9.7% of properties bought by single-property investors were sourced from other landlords, suggesting they are more often competing with traditional homeowners for inventory.